NHL.com

Shortly after Buffalo’s Patrick Kaleta scored the first playoff goal of his NHL career to make the score 2-1 in Boston’s favor, the Bruins had to defuse another buzzing shift by the visitors. To survive it, Milan Lucic had to throw himself to the ice to block a Steve Montador shot before Dennis Wideman blocked a second shot from Montador. Finally, Lucic cleared and Boston was able to roll off three straight shifts in Buffalo’s end to restore order.

Leading 2-0 lead in the first period, Montreal had to kill off a 5-on-3 for 1:15 after Roman Hamrlik shot the puck over the glass. The Habs did just that thanks to excellent work from defensemen Hal Gill and Josh Gorges and forwards Tomas Plekanec and Tom Pyatt, who split time to help kill it off. Gill and Gorges each had key blocks and Plekanec forced the puck down to the other end of the ice. Gill also redirected a pass to the slot. With the 5-on-3 killed off, the Habs also killed off the subsequent 5-on-4 thanks to a clear by Gionta and two saves by Jaroslav Halak.

Nashville had just rallied to tie the score on a pair of Jason Arnott goals, and it looked like the Predators and Blackhawks would skate 3-3 into the first intermission. But Jerred Smithson took a hooking penalty 17 seconds after Arnott’s second of the game, and Chicago captain Jonathan Toews needed all of seven ticks off the clock before he put a wrister past Pekka Rinne for what turned out to be the game-winning and series-clinching power-play goal.